Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conduct a competitive Examination for the Recruitment of Special Class Railway Apprentices Examination, (SCRA) in Mechanical Department of Indian Railways. In this article we will discuss about SCRA exams syllabus, Pattern And Eligibility Criteria.Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) SCRA Exam Pattern : In this Exam there are Two Part Part I is Objective type Question only and Part II is Personality Test. All sections of the Question Paper for the Part-I will be set in Only English. Question paper will be approximately of the intermidiate standerd.

Personality Test : Personality Test carrying a maximum of 200 marks in respect of only those candidates who are declared qualified on the result of written Examination. each candidates will be interviewed by a board who will have before them a recrod of his career both academic and extramural. They will be asked question on matters general interest.

Negative Marking : There will be negative marking of 0.33 marks for each wrong answer.Syllabus For SCRA Exams : Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) SCRA Exam is the most popular exam among the all exams conducted by UPSC. Now lets have a look at the detailed syllabus of this Exam. Special Class Railway Apprentices Examination comprises of three papers viz, Paper I, Paper II, Paper III.

The questions will be designed to test the candidates’ understanding and command Of the language.

(ii) General Knowledge :

The questions will be designed to test a candidate’s general awareness of the environment around him/her and its application to society. The standard of answers to question should be as expected of students of standard 12 or equivalent. Man and is environment Evolution of life, plants and animals, heredity and environment-Genetics, cells, chromosomes, genesis Knowledge of the human body-nutrition, balanced diet, substitute foods, public health and sanitation including control of epidemics and common diseases. Environmental pollution and its control. Food adulteration, proper storage and preservation of food grains and finished products, population explosion, population control. Production of food and raw materials. Breeding of animals and plants, artificial insemination, manures and fertilizers, crop protection measures, high yielding varieties and green revolution, main cereal and cash crops of India. Solar system and the earth. Seasons, Climate, Weather, Soil—its ormation, erosion. Forests and their uses. Natural calamities cyclones, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. Mountains and rivers and their role in irrigation in India. Distribution of natural resources and industries in India. Exploration of under—ground minerals including Oil conservation of natural resources with particular reference to the flora and fauna of India. History, Politics and Society in India— Vedic, Mahavir, Buddha, auryan, Sunga, Andhra, Kushan. Gupta ages (Mauryan Pillars, Stupa Caves, Sanchi, Mathura and Gandharva Schools, Temple architecture, Ajanta and Ellora) the rise of new social forces with the coming of Islam and establishment of broader contacts Transition from feudalism to capitalism. Opening of European contacts. Establishment of British rule in India. Rise of nationalism and national struggle for freedom culminating in Independence. Constitution of India and its characteristic features—Democracy, secularism, Socialism, equality of opportunity and Parliamentary form of Government. Major political ideologies—democracy, socialism, communism and Gandhi an idea of non-violence. Indian political parties, pressure groups, public opinion and the press, electoral system. India’s foreign policy and non-alignment- Arms race, balance of power. World organization — political, social, economic and cultural. Important events including sports and cultural activities) in India and abroad during the past two years. Broad features of Indian social system — the caste system, hierarchy — recent changes and trends. Minority social institution — marriage, family, religion and acculturation Division of labour, co-operation, conflict and competition, Social control — reward and punishment, art, law, customs, propaganda, public opinion, agencies of social control — family, religion, State educational institutions; factors of social change — economic, technological, demographic, cultural; the concept of revolution. Social disorganisation in India — Casteism, communalism, corruption in public life, youth unrest, beggary, drugs, delinquency and crime, poverty and unemployment. Social planning and welfare in India, community development and labour welfare; welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. Money — Taxation, price, demographic trends, national income, economic growth. Private and Public Sectors; economic and non-economic factors in planning, balanced versus imbalanced growth, agricultural versus industrial development; inflation and price stabilization, problem of resource mobilisation. India’s Five Year Plans.

(iii)Psychological Test :

The questions will be designed to assess the basic intelligence and mechanical aptitude of the candidate.

3. Energy changes in a chemical reaction Exothermic and Endothermic Reactions Application of First Law of Thermodynamics, Hess’s Law of constant heat summation.

4. Chemical Equilibriums and rates of reactions. Law of Mass action. Effect of Pressure, Temperature and concentration on the rates of reaction. (Qualitative treatment based on Le Chatelier’s Principle). Molecularity; First and Second order reaction. Concept of Energy of activation. Application to manufacture of Ammonia and Sulphur trioxide.

9. Group O. (Noble gases) Helium and its uses. 10. Metallurgical Processes: General Methods of extraction of metals with specific reference to copper, iron, aluminums,

Silver, gold, zinc and lead. Common alloys of these metals; Nickel and manganese steels.

Organic Chemistry :

1. Tetrahedral nature of carbon, Hybridization and sigma pie bonds and their relative strength. Single and multiple bonds. Shapes of molecules. Geometrical and optical somerism.

2. General methods of preparation, properties and reaction of alkenes, alkenes and alkynes, Petroleum and its refining. Its uses as fuel. Aromatic hydrocarbons: Resonance and aromaticity. Benzene and Naphthalene and their analogues. Aromatic substitution reactions.

Integral Calculus and Differential equations: Integral Calculus: Integration as inverse of differential, integration by substitution and by parts, standard integrals involving algebraic expression, trigonometric, exponential and hyperbolic functions. Evaluation of definite integralsdetermination of areas of plane regions bounded by curves – applications. Differential equations : Definition of order and degree of a differential equation, formation of a differential equation by examples. General and particular solution of a differential equation, solution of first order and first degree differential equation of various types – examples. Solution of second order homogeneous differential equation with constant co-efficient.

Analytic Geometry (two dimensions) : Rectangular Cartesian. Coordinate system, distance between two points, equation of a straight line in various forms, angle between two lines, and distance of a point from a line. Transformation of axes. Pair of straight lines, general equation of second degree in x and y — condition to represent a pair of straight lines, point of intersection, angle between two lines. Equation of a circle in standard and in general form, equations of tangent and normal at a point, orthogonally of two circles. Standard equations of parabola, ellipse and hyperbola — parametric equations, equations of tangent and normal at a point in both Cartesian and parametric forms.

Algebra : Concept of a set, Union and Intersection of sets, Complement of a set, Null set, Universal set and Power set, Venn diagrams and simple applications. Cartesian product of two sets, relation and mapping — examples, Binary operation on a set — examples. Representation of real numbers on a line Complex numbers: Modulus, Argument, Algebraic operations on complex numbers Cube roots of unity. Binary system of numbers, Conversion of a decimal number to a binary number and vice versa. Arithmetic, Geometric and Harmonic Progressions. Summation of series involving A.P., G.P., and H.P… Quadratic equations with real co-efficients Quadratic expressions: extreme values. Permutation and combination, Binomial theorem and its applications. Matrices and Determinants: Types of matrices, equality, matrix addition and scalar multiplication – properties. Matrix multiplication — non-commutative and distributive property over addition. Transpose of a matrix, Determinant of a matrix. Minors and Co-factors. Properties of determinants. Singular and non-singular matrices. Adjoin and Inverse of a square-matrix, Solution of a system of linear equations in two and three variables- elimination method, Cramers rule and Matrix inversion method (Matrices with m rows and n columns where m, n < to 3 are to be considered). Idea of a Group, Order of a Group, Abelian group. Identitiy and inverse elements- Illustration by simple examples.

Differential Calculus: Concept of a real valued function — domain, range and graph. Composite functions one to one, onto and inverse functions, algebra of real functions examples of polynomial, rational, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions. Notion of limit, Standard limits – examples. Continuity of functions – examples, algebraic operations on continuous functions. Derivative of a function at a point, geometrical and physical interpretation of a derivative – applications. Derivative of sum, product and quotient of functions, derivative of a function with respect to another function, derivative of a composite function, chain rule. Second order derivatives. Role’s theorem (statement only), increasing and decreasing functions. Application of derivatives in problems of maxima, minima, greatest and least values of a function.

Vectors and its applications: Magnitude and direction of a vector, equal vectors, unit vector, zero vector, vectors in two and three dimensions, position vector. Multiplication of a vector by a scalar, sum and difference of two vectors, Parallelogram law and triangle law of addition. Multiplication of vectors — scalar product or dot product of two vectors, perpendicularity, commutative and distributive properties. Vector product or cross product of two vectors. Scalar and vector triple products. Equations of a line, plane and sphere in vector form – simple problems. Area of a triangle, parallelogram and problems of plane geometry and trigonometry using vector methods. Work done by a force and moment of a force.

Statistics and probability: Statistics: Frequency distribution, cumulative frequency distribution – examples. Graphical representation – Histogram, frequency polygon – examples. Measure of central tendency – mean, median and mode. Variance and standard deviation – determination and comparison. Correlation and regression. Probability: Random experiment, outcomes and associated sample space, events, mutually exclusive and exhaustive events, impossible and certain events. Union and Intersection of events. Complementary, elementary and composite events. Definition of probability: classical and statistical – examples. Elementary theorems on probability – simple problems conditionals probability, Bayes’ theorem – simple problems. Random variable as function on a sample space. Binomial distribution, examples of random experiments giving rise to Binomial distribution. Personality Test Each candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of his career both academic and extramural. They will be asked questions on matters of general interest. Special attention will be paid to assessing their potential qualities of leadership, initiative and intellectual curiosity, tact and other social qualities, mental and physical energy, power of practical application and integrity of character.

Eligibility Criteria :

Candidates should have passed in Intermediate with first or second division, or an equivalent Examination of a University or Board approved by Govt of India with Mathematics and at least one of the subjects Physics and Chemistry as subjects of the examination. Graduates with Mathematics and at least one of the subjects Physics and Chemistry as their degree subjects.